Now the names of the twelve apostles.
Thoughts on a list of names
A good deal may be made out of a list of names, but it depends on whose names they are. There is a book which has nothing in it but names-that book would interest the universe-“the Lamb’s book of life.” We may look on the men-
I. Officially.
1. They are selected, chosen, set apart by Christ as apostles. The marvellous results which have flowed from this selection. Their story has moved the world. The world persecuted them, but now falls at their feet.
2. The little power naturally there would seem to have been in these men to have produced any great results. Men of no rank. If the work had not been of God, it could not have been done.
3. There is the list complete. Twelve men are selected, yet few of them stand out in full length in the history. Every true worker God observes.
4. The name may be in the list of the apostles, but the man may not be there. Judas in the list, he not there.
II. Personally. We may read it as a list of persons in the Church.
1. The gospel embraces persons of different tempers and tastes, yet all part of one Church.
2. How the good cause may be advanced by relationship. Here are three pairs of brothers in the list.
3. That a catalogue might be made out of a church book of those whose previous lives had been rather questionable.
4. How we can understand the Christian mellowing with age, the better nature grows and is perfected. (T. Binney.)
Called to the ministry
The attorney that pleads at the bar may have as good gifts as the judge that sits upon the bench; but he must have a lawful commission before he sit as a judge: if it be thus in civil matters, much more in church matters, which are of higher concern. Those, therefore, who usurp the work of the ministry without being solemnly set apart for it, discover more pride than zeal, and they can expect no blessing. (T. Watson.)
Groups of apostles
It can hardly be without significance that in all the apostolic lists they are divided into the same three groups. In the first group we should naturally expect to find the men of the largest and strongest make-those whose capacity and force of character would fit them to lead the rest. And this expectation is justified by the event. Peter and Andrew, James and John, are the natural leaders of the apostolic company. We might almost call them the Boanergic group, so marked and emphatic is the strain of passion in their service. In the second group are well-known and well-marked men. They are all reflective men, all sceptical men. Philip is the leader, and he was a man that would rather see than believe. They are excellent and thoughtful men, but they will not do much for the world apart from men of a more forward and adventurous spirit than their own. They all believe, but they all have a good deal of unbelief in them. The third group we may call the Hebraistic or practical group-Hebraistic in virtue of one set of qualities which they have in common, and practical in virtue of another set of qualities. They held stoutly to the older Hebrew forms of truth and righteousness; and they were at least as much Hebrew as Christian even to the end. But, on the other hand, all the apostles of this group were men of evidently practical gifts; and this is especially seen in Judas “of the apron,” Judas “of the bag,” a man chosen to carry the bag because he was careful, prudent, busy, good at buying and selling, conversant with the world. (T. T. Lynch.)
Early Church symbols of the apostles
In a series of enamels, by Leonard Limousin, in the Church of St. Peter, at Chartres, the apostles are represented with different insignia. St. Peter with the keys, as commissioned with the power to bind and to loose. St. Paul with a sword, as a soldier of Christ, armed with the “ sword of the Spirit.” St. Andrew with a cross, shaped as the letter X, the form of the cross on which he is supposed to have been martyred. St. John with a chalice, in allusion to Matthew 20:23. St. James the Less with a book and a club, in allusion to the supposed manner of his death. St. James the Elder with a pilgrim’s staff, a broad hat with scallop shells, and a book, he being regarded as the patron of pilgrims. St. Thomas with an architect’s square, as patron of architects and builders. St. Philip with a small cross, the staff of which is knotted like a reed, and indicates the traveller’s staff, and marks the apostle as the preacher of Christ crucified to distant nations. St. Matthew with a pike (or spear): St. Matthias with an axe; St. Bartholomew with a book and a knife; St. Simon with a saw; these indicating the different modes of their death, according to the legendary accounts. (Dict. of Antiquities.)
John his brother
God often unites by grace those whom He has before united by nature; to show us, that although nature be not a step towards grace, yet it is not always a hindrance to it. (Quesuel.)